The Boy on the Porch by Sharon Creech

Ooopsie, I'm a day late and a dollar....well, we won't talk about money...not here, not in the midst of such wonderful conversations about books. And speaking of books, have you read The Boy on the Porch by Sharon Creech yet? No....well, time for some more searching. This twister from expert author Creech caught me and made me slow down and do one thing at a time. Seriously no treadmill, no half-hearted listening to my partner while the pages were open, no eyes-half-closed attempts right before the lights go out for sleeping. Nope, not for this one.

Creech combines family, language, life stories, questioning, farm life, city life all in a not-so-tidy package here. A young boy "arrives" on a young couple's porch one morning. For some reason he won't/can't/doesn't  use verbal language to give them any information about him. A note waits in his pocket until he decides it is time to give it to the adults:

Plees taik kair of Jacob.
He is a god good boy.
Wil be bak wen we can.

So the young couple waits. And waits. And search. And listen. And fall in love with the youngster. And then they don't want him to leave. The story is kinda like a mystery within a mystery, a how-do-we-keep-this-boy-a-secret while searching for his parents and also deciding what it might be like for him to join our family. Ah, but maybe I spoil too much.

Or maybe I don't.

I will stop there. Find this one. As usual, Creech wins. A lovely book. And I still wonder: who is the boy on the porch...for the rest of us?